deiaturtle
Member
Morning, does anyone have experience of unlocking the pink locking mechanism on the back of the fuse board, to release the terminals? Usually they slide to unlock, but I’m damned if I can slide it or prize it out ?
Fuse board locking mechanism removal
- Thread starter deiaturtle
- Start date
Catnip64
A2OC Donor
@Andrew suggested that he knows how to do this, maybe he'll reveal all....
Newbie with 2005 BHC
Hi all, just bought my first A2 after many years of admiring them and of pursuing my other car obsessions instead. It’s a 2005 BHC in Cobalt with 49k miles. Cosmetically it’s imperfect (shame - mainly bumpers and wheel arches) and I’m finding a ton of mechanical and other jobs to do. So far...
www.a2oc.net
It is the same member asking the question!
It is some time ago since I looked at this and tbh I have forgotten the details, except no special technique it 'just' slides. I will refresh my memory later and post some pictures but it will probably be tomorrow.
Andy
deiaturtle
Member
Thanks Andrew, that would be great! ??
The secondary terminal pin lock of the fuse box is a large pink plastic honeycombed box that encases every pin location.
Rear part view of fuse box.
At one end, for want of a better word is a protruding tongue (left end in picture above) that seems to play the role of lock state indicator. When the pins are locked the the outside face of the tongue is flush with the housing.
The whole honeycomb "simply" slides about 2mm to unlock.
Note the outside face of the tongue is no longer flush with the housing indicating an unlocked state. The sliding is limited by the end honeycomb cells coming hard up to the housing as in the last picture.
Now the terminal pins can be extracted with a pin tool, easier said than done I find.
The "simple" slide is NOT simple at first attempt! Like most plastic parts after two decades it will be stuck. I adopted a method of levering with a single slot screwdriver at the opposite end to the tongue.
Locking and unlocking many times to take these pictures the slide is now ever so easy. When it locks there is a satisfying click, and possibly when it unlocks.
Having said all this you can see this fuse box is not in the car, it was provided by A2Steve on which to learn and practice, I did not wish to tackle the job without knowledge and break something in my car's box. How easy it will be in situ I have yet to find out!
Out of general interest the pink honeycombed box is retained in the housing by four tabs, this is one of them bottom left,
and some claws at the end opposite the tongue..
Lastly a byproduct of a practice box is I have ended up with dozens of connectors and wire tails of different colours and several different size connectors!
Hope this helps.
Apologies for some of the picture quality.
Andy
Rear part view of fuse box.
At one end, for want of a better word is a protruding tongue (left end in picture above) that seems to play the role of lock state indicator. When the pins are locked the the outside face of the tongue is flush with the housing.
The whole honeycomb "simply" slides about 2mm to unlock.
Note the outside face of the tongue is no longer flush with the housing indicating an unlocked state. The sliding is limited by the end honeycomb cells coming hard up to the housing as in the last picture.
Now the terminal pins can be extracted with a pin tool, easier said than done I find.
The "simple" slide is NOT simple at first attempt! Like most plastic parts after two decades it will be stuck. I adopted a method of levering with a single slot screwdriver at the opposite end to the tongue.
Locking and unlocking many times to take these pictures the slide is now ever so easy. When it locks there is a satisfying click, and possibly when it unlocks.
Having said all this you can see this fuse box is not in the car, it was provided by A2Steve on which to learn and practice, I did not wish to tackle the job without knowledge and break something in my car's box. How easy it will be in situ I have yet to find out!
Out of general interest the pink honeycombed box is retained in the housing by four tabs, this is one of them bottom left,
and some claws at the end opposite the tongue..
Lastly a byproduct of a practice box is I have ended up with dozens of connectors and wire tails of different colours and several different size connectors!
Hope this helps.
Apologies for some of the picture quality.
Andy
Last edited:
deiaturtle
Member
Andy, this a great, thank you so much. Having looked again you can also see two locking tabs between the pink and black housings which control the ‘click’ of the locking mechanism of the housing when slid open and shut - 1 set of tabs on each side about half way down the board. Like you, removing the pin is the tricky part even when the pink section is in the open position.